I examine the chain’s silver links,
intact, mint condition, wonder

if my mother remembered this tender claim,
if she meant to tell me where to find it

before she fell silent. If she
recalled our dress-up dates,

our races to lap bowls of milk
on the kitchen floor, kittens on hands

and knees, Friday pizzas made
with hot dog disks and Colby,

the come-as-you-are parties on snow
days, tricycles overturned to churn

ice cream from clumps of new-mown grass,
doll clothes traced from wallpaper books,

talks late into nighttime with neighbors,
lawn chairs abutting the property

line, jokes about who had to clean
up the ashtrays, Coke bottles,

pickle jars of dead fireflies.

Annette Sisson has published poems in many anthologies and journals and a chapbook in 2019 (Finishing Line). She was named a 2020 BOAAT Writing Fellow, honorable mention in Passager’s 2019 poetry contest, and winner of The Porch Writers’ Collective’s 2019 poetry prize. Her recent book has so far been a finalist (Glass Lyre Press) and semifinalist (Brittingham & Felix Pollak Prize). Visit her website: http://annettesisson.com